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XIX. — Foraminifera of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. By F. Gordon 

 Pearcey, Bristol Museum ; late of the Challenger Expedition and Commission. 

 Communicated hy Dr J. H. Harvey Pirie. (With Two Plates.) 



(Read May 26, 1913. MS. received Augiist 2, 1913. Issued separately March 30, 1914.) 



The fauna of the Polar regions is of deep interest to zoologists generally, that of 

 the Antarctic specially so, and in this the Rhizopodist can justly claim his share. 



Since the return of the Challenger Expedition in 1876, the later British expeditions 

 to this area, with the exception of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, did but 

 little in the way of sounding and trawling in the deeper waters of the Antarctic. 

 Although much additional work has been carried out, and many new and rare species of 

 the higher forms of marine life from this region have been brought to light, compara- 

 tively little has been added to the Rhizopod fauna since the results of the Challenger 

 Expedition were published. The following pages on the Foraminifera are due to the 

 energy and enthusiasm of Dr W. S. Bruce, F.R.S.E., and his colleagues. The genera 

 and species here enumerated and described have been obtained from samples of deposits 

 sent to me at intervals by Dr Bruce and Dr J. H. Harvey Pirie, collected by them, 

 during the S.Y. Scotia Expedition in 1903-4, chiefly from the area of the Weddell Sea, 

 where the ocean floor is covered with terrigenous deposits of Blue Mud, or (as Dr Pirie 

 calls them) Glacial Muds and Clays. A few samples were also obtained from the 

 Southern Atlantic Ocean, over the areas where the deposits form the typical Globigerina 

 and Diatom Oozes. With the exception of two or three samples of washings of the 

 material taken by the trawl, the quantity available for examination was too meagre 

 to enable one to tabulate a comprehensive distribution chart, or a complete list of 

 the various genera and species that one might expect to find at the stations from 

 which the samples were obtained. These samples, however, pointed to there being a 

 rich Foraminiferal fauna. 



Whenever the trawl or dredge was worked and a sufficient quantity of the deposit 

 was brought up and washed, a considerable number of Foraminifera was obtained, 

 more especially of the larger arenaceous types, which goes to prove that the Fora- 

 miniferal fauna is rich all over the Blue Mud area, and that the conditions of life 

 are congenial on these deposits — close up to the Antarctic Continent. It has also 

 been shown that similar conditions prevail in the Arctic seas and North Atlantic. 

 More systematic work with the trawl, dredge, and sounding machine, and a larger 

 quantity of material for examination, are necessary before one can speak definitely on 

 the forms to be met with in any part of the area in question, or on any specially 



TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. XLIX. PART IV. (NO. 19). 136 



